Weight Cut With Water [PDF]

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About the author: Alex Bromley was first introduced to weight lifting at age 13 through the high school football program in Charleston, IL. 20 years later, he has over 30 Strongman and Powerlifting competitions under his belt and has prepped dozens of athletes for their first meet. Alex has the IHGF log press record at 410lbs while staying competitive in both the middle weight and heavy weight divisions. He currently owns Empire Barbell in Redlands, CA and oversees the programming of numerous National-level strength athletes.

PREFACE My first weight cut happened early in my competitive career, over 10 years ago. I had steadily bulked up over the previous 2 years of training to beyond the upper limit of the 231lb weight class and was on my way to one of the biggest amateur strongman contests of the year. Strongman Corporation (North American Strongman, back then) would hold several contests per year that gave out 'pro cards' to the winner. Nothing more than a plastic trophy to carry around in your wallet, the draw of the 'pro card' was still strong enough to get hundreds of weekend-warrior recreational lifters to spend thousands of dollars on travel and entry fees in an attempt to earn one. Summerfest Strongman in Milwaukee, WI was one such event and, like every other die-hard strongman wannabe, I had drained my shallow bank account in a bid for glory at what was essentially an amateur show. This contest was unique. Typically, such an event would feature numerous weight divisions, lightweight, heavyweight, and maybe even a women's division. But Summerfest was held specifically as a light weight men's contest to give out a light weight men's pro card with no other divisions contested that day. What did this mean for my 245lb self? That all of the money spent on travel would be absolutely wasted if I couldn't show up at weigh ins at 231lbs. We planned to leave Wednesday night, arrive in Wisconsin Thursday morning, and spend the whole day cutting down. Our plans were quickly sidelined, as we spent an hour in the wrong line at the airport and eventually missed our flight. The anxiety of spending 12 hours overnight in the airport terminal led to a quick breakdown: I made a bee-line to the closest Carl's Jr. and polished off a Teriyaki Six Dollar Burger with a side of fries and an Oreo shake. I was not off to a good

start. We made it to Milwaukee the next afternoon, finding our room just in time to go to sleep and wake up for weigh ins. Over-confident in my ability to handle what was promised to be an 'easy' weight cut, I left it all to the day of weigh ins. I woke up at 8am, 14lbs over weight with only til mid-afternoon to weight in. My training partner at the time was more seasoned than I and attempted to outline a plan for me. He handed me a caffeine pill and pointed to the bath tub. An hour in a lukewarm bathtub, I was pruny and had barely broken a sweat. Panic was also starting to kick in as I ran the math in my head. “Half pound down in an hour.... 12lbs to go.... I need..... 24 hours in this bath!” On to plan B, the more aggressive approach. At this point my only experience in weight cutting was from watching fight documentaries and the few tidbits of information my training partner threw my way. I had images of fighters sparring in trash bags and running stairs in full sweats and a hoodie. I just knew I had to sweat and I had to sweat a lot, so I resolved to force the weight off by any means necessary. I threw on a cheap sauna suit fresh off the Wal-Mart shelves that stunk of new factory plastic and noisily shuffled to the hotel gym (there was no sauna available). I started what would be a 7 hour marathon, hopping between the treadmill and recumbent bike with no other plan than to kill myself to get the weight off. Everything was wrong in my prep. I had no plan the week of weigh-ins and made no alterations to my diet or water intake. Though I was in decent shape for a strongman, that still amounts to horrible shape for any long distance endurance activity and I was up against the clock which forced me to run a marathon the day before a heavy contest.

I got the weight off somehow and, boy, did I pay the price for it. The next day my legs ached and felt heavy, like they were wrapped in wet towels. I put up a meager performance on the overhead press (one of my best events), bombed the fingal finger, was slow on the loading medley, and only loaded 3 of the 5 stones in the series. In all honesty, my best performance wouldn't have won that contest that day, but I knew damn sure that my placing fell dramatically from the torture I put myself through the day before. I resolved to never put myself in that situation again. After Summerfest had finished and we landed back in California, my attention went straight to the pros. Many of the active 105kg pros walked around 20 or more pounds above the 231lb cutoff. I scoured the forums looking for tips on strategy and bit by bit began to piece together a plan. One guy talked about how he would drink massive amounts of water before cutting out water altogether. Another talked about how the hot baths need to be HOT and your exposed parts have to be covered. I heard about diuretics, epsom salts, wintergreen alcohol..... even petroleum jelly. I had the last 10 years to apply all of these tips and refine a bullet proof strategy; every cut I would take note of what worked and throw away the rest. I didn't fear gaining weight for heavyweight shows because I was confident that I would be able to get the weight off for a big lightweight meet. As I got better at cutting, I was able to push the envelope more each time. My biggest cut to date took place in September, 2018 in a bid to qualify for Nationals. Sunday morning weight ins put me at 266 before the water loading began and I had to be at 231lbs a mere 5 days later. Not only did I make weight, but I won the show and earned my spot at Nationals.

Since then, we have had success with multiple middleweight men and lightweight females. Not only do they routinely make weight without issue, but they end up stronger and heavier the day of the actual meet! Below, I outlined the important principles for cutting weight, leaving out the trendy junk that you might find in weight loss blogs. Anyone can follow this protocol as long as they have access to drinking water and a bath tub. I highly recommend getting several competitions under your belt before trying to cut a substantial amount of weight. With newer athletes, too many moving parts in a meet prep can spell disaster. I also recommend experimenting with smaller cuts before trying to cut 10% or more of your body weight. Direct questions or comments to the Youtube page or contact me through Instagram @empire_barbell or the contact form on our website Empire-Barbell.com Good Luck!

5 DAY WATER CUT PROTOCOL How I Lost 35lbs in 5 days DISCLAIMER: First things first, this is not a DIET protocol. This is a temporary cut for athletes who need to make weight for a competition and return to their original weight and performance 24 hours later. This method centers around dehydration. Drinking a glass of water undoes everything in this protocol, so unless you plan on not drinking fluids for the rest of your life, this is not a long (or even medium) term solution to losing weight. Staying in this state for too long can have adverse health effects, so consult your physician before taking the advice that follows.

There are 4 main pieces to cutting weight effectively: • • • •

Water Loading Diet Sweating Rehydrating

We will go over each piece one-by-one and discuss how they should be timed together to optimize your weight cut and avoid any negative impact to your performance. One thing that is not included is diuretics. I have found over the counter diuretics to be largely ineffective (others may disagree) and prescription diuretics are hard to come by (and don't forget dangerous). Since I have consistently cut such large amounts of water weight without them, it seemed appropriate to leave them out. The only thing dumber than risking your health for a recreational sport is to risk your health for a lighter weight class in a recreational sport!

WATER LOADING Most of the water weight will be lost within 36 hours of weigh in, but starting a water load 5 days out is an effective way to kick-start the process. Essentially, you will be flooding your body with water for 4 days before eliminating all water consumption. The result is excessive urination that occurs after you have stopped drinking fluids which can easily strip several pounds of body weight. For most, this is just the icing on the cake, but some athletes who were within 2-4% of their weigh-in goal were able to make weight using this tactic alone. Sun: Mon: Tues: Weds: Thurs: Fri:

2 gallons of water 2 gallons of water 2 gallons of water 2 gallons of water no water weigh in

Most will notice waking up Thursday morning several pounds below their normal morning weight. Throughout the rest of the day, urination should continue and more weight should be lost. Cutting carbs and sodium on Tuesday should also accelerate this process, since carbs and sodium help store water in the body. Anyone who has tried a low carb diet can attest to the quick loss of water weight once carbs are eliminated from their diet.

DIET The point of dieting around a water cut is not to lose body fat, but to reduce the amount of food weight in the stomach and to eliminate substances that hold water in the body. Normal eating should continue through the entire day Monday. Don't reduce portions and don't abstain from carbs or salt, simply eat as you normally would. If calories are restricted too early, it can lead to a loss of muscle tissue leading up to the meet. Our goal is to preserve muscle and strength so that performance isn't affected. On Tuesday, carbs and sodium should be eliminated and portion sizes slightly reduced. Both retain water and eliminating them causes a rapid flush of water out of the body. Stick to eggs and meat Tuesday and Wednesday, but remember to avoid seasonings. Things like breakfast sausage come loaded with sodium, avoid them like the plague! Thursday, all food should be eliminated along with all water intake. If fasting becomes too difficult, very lightweight foods can be eaten sparingly to give an energy boost and push through the tough parts of the weight cut. Egg whites are a great option. I've also heard of very small pieces of bread with peanut butter. At this point, the weight of the food is the most important thing; keep it to a few ounces or less. Use a food scale to make sure a desperate snack doesn't sideline your cut.

SWEATING Thursday morning, the day before weigh ins, you should wake up carb and sodium depleted without much excess food in your stomach. Having drank 2 gallons of water the day before, you should have woken up multiple times to urinate, and you should be significantly lighter than your normal morning weight. All of Thursday is dedicated to forcing the rest of the water weight off through sweating. This is the most straight-forward route to quick weight loss, but the one people will mess up most frequently. A few quick rules: DO NOT begin sweating earlier through the week. We actually had one of our Doctors who competes experiment with this for his last cut and it was a huge detriment to his cut. He felt that time in the sauna earlier in the week just fatigued him and made the rest of the cut unnecessarily hard. Remember, once you drink water, all of the sweating you just did gets erased. As long as you are consuming water, it makes no sense to sweat. DO NOT use a steam room and do not shower or rinse off once you have begun sweating. STAY DRY! In my biggest cut (35lbs in 5 days), I wasted several hours of sweat time by rinsing off with a cold shower in between hot baths. It took 2 hours of intervals to realize I had lost no weight because my skin was pulling in the water from the cold shower. For my last pound, I thought the humidity in the steam room would induce sweating faster, so I decided to do six 10-minute intervals. The end result was 0lbs lost in a full hour of sweating. Once again, STAY DRY in between rounds! (If you have to cool off, an ice pack on the head can give a nice psychological break). DO NOT push the sweating too hard too early. Many think they can be tough and pull 45 minute rounds in the sauna right out of the gate.

This will exhaust you faster and make the later rounds of sweating absolutely miserable. The best approach is to calculate your rounds ahead of time and spread it out over the entire day. A good guideline is an hour of total sweating to a pound of weight loss. It might be more in the beginning, but it will drop in later rounds. DO NOT over exert yourself with activity to force weight off. The easiest way to sweat is to perform some aerobic activity in high temperature, but activity in a depleted state (especially to strength athletes who are typically not conditioned to aerobic activity in the first place) can be hugely detrimental to your performance. Keep the sweating passive! Method 1: The Dry Sauna The backbone of your sweat should be a dry sauna. You can move around, sit stand, bring a tablet, listen to music, or do whatever else helps you stay motivated. 15 minutes in, 15 minutes out is a good guideline, and a towel should be used to stay dry. I typically start my Thursday at 6am in a dry sauna, with 2-3 hours of intervals to get the first few pounds off. After this, I will rest for an hour or so. These planned breaks will help psychologically to last through the entire day. Method 2: Hot Baths At this point, I like to switch to hot baths, which are more aggressive in shedding weight, but also much more taxing. Get the bath as hot as you can stand without burning yourself and submerge yourself up to your neck. Soak a towel in the hot water and cover your head and legs, so nothing is exposed. The humidity causes your body to sweat much faster, making it much more productive than a sauna. Once 1520 minutes has passed, dry off immediately and lie down next to a fan. Run 15-20 minutes IN to 15-20 minutes OUT for 2 hours before taking a break. (Note, do not continue with this method if you feel sick or light headed).

Some protocols call for wintergreen alcohol, epsom salts, and other strange additives. They don't do anything. We have tried them all. Save your money and stick to hot water. An extra aggressive protocol which will peel a lot of water off in a short amount of time (but, again, is very taxing and hard to run through multiple times) involves covering your body in petroleum jelly. The jelly seals in heat, inducing sweating faster and keeping it going longer. 1520 minutes in a bath followed immediately by 25 minutes completely wrapped in a wool blanket and sweats (head and all) has been reported to shed 6lbs or more in a single go-through. Again, err on the side of safety, since this can lead to overheating very quickly. (It's also messy) After a few hours in the baths, I will take another break. If I feel exceptionally weak, I will eat a few ounces of egg whites to give a small boost in strength (2-3 ounces of food doesn't equate to much in a 320 ounce water cut). More often than not, I will abstain from all food all together. Method 3: Walks in a Sauna Suit My third preference for sweating is to put on a sauna suit, sweats and a hoodie and take my dogs for a walk. The light activity will kick start the sweating process and keep it going for the duration, and the walk will take my mind off the monotony of being hot for so long. Usually I feel reinvigorated by the end and have a new resolve to push through. A 45 minute walk will get 1.5-2lbs off of me without much exertion. By this point, it is afternoon and I should be down halfway between my morning weight and what I need to weigh in. This is go time. I will go back to the hot baths, hitting intervals more aggressively and really shooting for that 20 minute mark. I will take slightly longer breaks to make sure I can last a bit longer in each bath. Over the rest

of the night, I may take a dozen baths, which gets me within 3lbs of weight ins. About half of that will burn off as I sleep, and I save the last bit to sweat off early in the morning. I'll go to bed a few lbs over, wake up, weigh myself, and run 2 or 3 more baths until I am below weight. The second I'm good, I'm in the car, being driven to weigh in (I don't recommend driving in this state) with a Gatorade and coconut water in each hand.

REHYDRATING This is by far the most important part of a big cut. You HAVE to rehydrate up to and beyond your normal walking around weight or you simply will not perform optimally on contest day. The benefit of being so depleted is that your body will SUPERCOMPENSATE, meaning you will pull in more water, electrolytes, and glycogen than normal, resulting in abnormally high performance. The key is to prioritize hydration over solid food. You can't regain 35lbs of body weight through steak and potatoes, it's impossible. You lost water, so you need to reabsorb water. Go absolutely nuts on salt, potassium, and sugar, since these all increase water absorption. Coconut water is my favorite, but through the rest of the night I will drink soda, juice, Gatorade, pedialyte, and anything else high in sugar and sodium. A gallon of water weighs 8lbs, so regaining 24lbs of fluids means 3 gallons of water. I also prioritize shitty processed carbohydrates since they also help with water absorption. Cheap pastries, donuts, coffee cakes, etc help enormously with that post-weight cut bloat. It helps to know your digestive system. I have the stomach of a goat, so slamming down 3 Entenman's coffee cakes with a half gallon of chocolate milk doesn't phase me, but if you have been away from processed junk for a long time, it can cause stomach issues. Not good before a big performance. If your stomach is sensitive, prioritize gut health over the marginal benefit of processed foods. By the time you go to bed, you should be substantially heavier than when you started 5 days before. Your eyes should be puffy, your gut should be distended..... you should be very uncomfortable. You want to make sure the fluids disperse back into the tissues where they are needed; light activity helps with this. Before bed, you might do some very light reps in a squat or a deadlift, or simply go for an easy walk. We want the blood moving, but the activity to be very passive and low impact.

5 Day Weight Cut Calendar

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Alexander Bromley @Empire_Barbell

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